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Ravens center Danny Pinter, the front-runner in a closely watched preseason positional battle, will miss “extended” time after suffering a knee injury in Wednesday’s joint practice with the Minnesota Vikings, coach Jesse Minter said Thursday.

Pinter was carted off the field Wednesday after he was hurt during an 11-on-11 period at the Vikings’ facility in Eagan, Minnesota. He was later seen wearing a full-leg brace on his right leg. NFL Network reported Thursday that testing revealed Pinter had torn his patellar tendon, typically a season-ending injury. Minter declined to offer a timetable for his recovery.

With Pinter sidelined, the scrutiny on centers Jovaughn Gwyn and Ethan Pocic will intensify. Pinter, 30, had taken most of the first-team snaps in training camp, and he started Saturday’s preseason win over the Philadelphia Eagles. A longtime reserve for the Indianapolis Colts with just 10 career starts, Pinter signed a one-year, $2.8 million contract with the Ravens in late March, the team’s first move to address the position after losing All-Pro Tyler Linderbaum in free agency.

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Gwyn, 27, has played just 11 career offensive snaps, but he has experience under first-year offensive line coach Dwayne Ledford, overlapping with him in his three seasons on the Atlanta Falcons. Minter called Gwyn “really powerful and athletic” and commended his play in 51 snaps against the Eagles.

“I would say that he has been really well trained, because our offensive line coach has coached him for the last few years,” Minter said Wednesday. “So he really understands how we want to play, which is great. He has been in a similar system, some of the wide-zone stuff that the Falcons ran, and a lot of familiarity with Coach Ledford and how he operates. So he is definitely great to have.”

Pocic, 31, a longtime Cleveland Browns starter who signed a one-year, $3.3 million deal in late July, is ramping up his workload as he looks for a potential Week 1 role. After tearing his Achilles tendon in December, Pocic has been eased back into practice, lining up almost exclusively with the Ravens’ reserves. He didn’t play Saturday against Philadelphia until the fourth quarter, finishing with just 14 snaps.

“I felt like we kind of targeted this second week of the preseason of [Pocic] kind of ramping up into more of the action anyway,” Minter said. “It is why you sign guys like that — is to, one, put them in the competition [and], two, to make sure you have enough in that situation.”

The Ravens will play the Vikings on Saturday at U.S. Bank Stadium before wrapping up their preseason schedule with another joint practice and an Aug. 28 game against the Washington Commanders. Their 53-man roster will be finalized on Aug. 30.

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“It’s probably still a competition,” said Minter, who indicated the Ravens would not look to acquire another potential starting center. “We’ll see how it shakes out over these next couple of weeks.”